Sadly Deflated Bun Toons! YAY!

Sigh…

As reported to me from an offspring correspondent….

So now I have to pay his tuition?!?  To these people?!?

Ty the Guy OUT!

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How to tell Ty Templeton from Stuart Immonen.   Here’s a handy chart.

Stuart has much smaller ears and is not a rabbit.

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For last week’s romantic Valentine’s Day Bun Toon, click here.

For the COMPLETELY UP TO DATE Bun Toons Archive, click here!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY and…

Saturday May 5 is Free Comic Book Day ! It’s like Christmas with less nog!

Christmas is RUINED. If only there was something to read with Batman in it, some time in May...

But just in case FREE COMICS aren’t enough for you ravenous T-Dot funny book fans–it’s also the weekend of The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, where the best of the indy creators gather together and just commit art all over the joint. Bring splash guards for all the flyin’ ink and paint.

You want MORE?  Free Comics and a great comics convention isn’t enough?   How greedy are you guys?  Okay, just to calm down the insatiable maw I sense out there, The Comic Book Lounge & Gallery ( conveniently located at the same address as the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop) will be crawling with lots of great comics creators including Stuart Immonen, Kathryn Immonen, Gibson Quarter, Marco Rudy, Raffaele Ienco, Mike Del Mundo, David J. Cutler, Karly Macdonald and this long eared Ty-Bunny, signing autographs, doin’ sketches, and making FREE COMIC BOOK DAY the magical adventure that it is.

According to the plans I’ve heard, there will be face painting for the kids, a mini artists alley, and obviously–free comics!! And word has it that Toronto Batman might make an appearance.

There, I hope that satisfies you folks for a day of comics fun.   After that exhausting day is over, I’m going to put my feet up on the couch at the Comic Book Lounge…and…

WAIT!  THERE’S MORE?!?!?

After the Free Comic Book Day events are over,  starting at 8pm, I will be sitting talking with my guests about Canadians and the comics industry exploring the idea of “As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.” in a LIVE talk show.

The first person I thought of to be my first guest ever was Mark Askwith. I’ve known Mark for thirty years now? Wow–long enough that I’ve lost track. I met Mark back when he was manager of The Silver Snail comic shop. When Mark created the much-beloved and much-missed Prisoners of Gravity for TVO, I did the art for the opening sequence, and guested on it frequently. These days, Mark is a producer at Space:  The Imagination Station, producing Inner Space. That’s only some of his comics cred–there’s so much more!

And we’ve got Will Pascoe, director of an upcoming documentary about the Golden Age of Canadian comics superheroes. And we’ve got Scott Chantler, the award winning creator of Two Generals and Towers of Treasure! Not enough for you? We’ve also got Ken Lashley–as he says in his bio “[he’s] worked for them all, Lucasfilm, lucas arts, Hasbro, Mattel, Dc comics, Marvel comics, Fox sports..etc..” In the midst of his many projects, he’s doing covers for DC Comics at the moment.

We’re planning for roughly an hour–but if we’re having too good a time, we might go longer. And the audience isn’t allowed to be shy, as we will be taking questions! (But keep your questions relevant to the conversation.  No one gets to bring up our Mayor’s weight problems or the price of gas.).

When On the Couch’s inaugural episode is over, there will be an announcement of the Joe Shuster Award nominations. Then–

–an Industry Night Party to celebrate comics, Canadians, the Shuster Awards and anything else we can think of.  We will make you ACHE with fun.

Come join us for some of, or all of the day–and the night! We’re excited about everything we have planned for Free Comic Book Day and for On the Couch with Ty Templeton. (This will be the  first of hopefully many On the Couch episodes–unless there’s a death in the audience, or an armed rebellion, we’re coming back).

Ty the Guy OUT!!

Here now, your BONUS FREE COMIC BOOK MOMENT:

Isn't this cool? And it didn't cost you a dime.

Roy Thomas and the Avengers raise money for Hero Initiative! YAY!

I’ve mentioned this a few times in the last weeks…Roy Thomas penciled a cover for an issue of Avengers, and I got to ink it, and we auctioned off the artwork to raise money for THE HERO INITIATIVE, a very worthy cause.

…and as the auction ended, the cover raised $635 for retired cartoonists with medical bills and no way to pay ’em (which is a big part of what HERO does).   What a lovely way to end the alarmingly busy, but pleasant month of May.  Tra la!

There’s plenty of covers left to auction off from this AVENGERS 100 set…here’s a few on the block right now!

The always lovely and talented TERRY DODSON

Click on the image to be taken to the auction

and the lovely and very Canadian Stuart Immonen.

Click on the image to be taken to the auction

It’s always a great cause, and some of these Avengers covers are the best sketches I’ve ever seen….(see below)

Ty the Guy

Here now, your BONUS Hero Avengers cover moment:

Click on the image and be taken to Steve Epting's Sketchblog!

Isn’t THAT pretty?

New Comics Day!

After being trapped in my studio for months, working on the new Dexter: Early Cuts animated webisode, and some Simpsons stories, I’m finally free enough to go to a comic store for New Comics Day…something I’ve not done since November of last year.    They still have comics on Wednesdays, right?

For those of us in the biz in Toronto, heading to my local comic stores (the Silver Snail in Toronto, and Altered States out here in the suburbs where I live) It’s a little like going to CHEERS and having everybody shout “Norm” when you walk into the room.  It recharges the batteries and reminds me that I actually LOVE this job…and it inspires a competitive attitude in me to see all the great work coming out week after week.

Imagine:  We have Bryan Hitch, Michael Lark, Howard Chaykin, Alex Ross, Butch Guice, Ed Brubaker, Art Adams, Alan Davis, Kyle Baker, David Finch, Stuart Immomen, Leinil Yu, Danny Slott, Mark Waid, and HUNDREDS of other top flight creators making comics art for us RIGHT NOW.  Not at some nebulous, nostalgic time where everything was better…but right NOW.  Covers, scripts, full issues…all flowing from an overwhelming group of creators, and I’m only scraping the surface of Marvel and DC type folks.  When you look at the panoply of available comix  out there in the indies, the self publishers, IDW, Dark Horse,  the online stuff…why don’t people call THIS the golden age?

My friend and co-conspirator in the Toronto Comics Workshop, Walter Dickenson, was with me at the last convention I attended, and he saw me heading over to the tables where they sell comics for a dollar, usually something from the last decade a dealer has overstocked.  When Walter saw me returning with about a hundred “dollar comics” he asked me why I bought them and I pointed out copies of Greg Land Ultimate FF comics, Jackson Guice issues of RUSE,  Busiek ASTRO CITY DARK AGE stories, Jerry Ordway’s RED MENACE, Warren Ellis Cliffhanger miniseries….all for a DOLLAR?   He asked me “What are you going to do with all those comics, Ty?” and I got confused by the question.

“I’m going to read ’em, Walter….and have a great time in doing so.”  Apparently, I’m like the last working pro who STILL can’t get enough of these funny books.  Does that make me sick?

Ty the Guy.  Smiling with anticipation at what glories the day might bring…

(Ty challenged me to hyper-link the bejeesus out of his entry…I hope you’re happy, Guy!  And I’m aware that Ty’s episode of Dexter: The Early Cuts is online…for various reasons, we are not linking to it at this time, but will at a later point).

(you never know who you’ll run into at your local comics store…like Jimmy Olsen.  Yes, that’s our son, Kellam–he’s a member of the clan, god help him.)